Employers and universities have been putting their heads together. Recently the Higher Education Academy reported on the outcomes of eight flexible learning pathfinder projects, funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, which found that employers favoured distance learning as a way of delivering career-related study.
Such distance-learning degrees, which are often designed to appeal to mid-career professionals looking to develop their roles in specific sectors, such as banking, law, finance and nursing, are a growth area for many universities.

My former employer used to love online CPD. We could do it at home in the evenings and weekends. And if we finally put our foot down and demanded to do it in work time as our contracts stated, then we could do it at our desks where we were still expected to answer our phone and email and could be easily interrupted whenever necessary (i.e. continuously). Never got lunchbreaks, so thankfully that minimised the impact on this aspect of my working life.

We actually had contracted hours of training per year. As it turned out, online CPD was a very efficient way of our employer claiming to provide it, without actually doing so and with minimal costs compared to proper day-release courses or intensive training away from the office. When we failed to complete our nominated courses, it was all our fault. Niiiice.

Kel Wrote:My former employer used to love online CPD. We could do it at home in the evenings and weekends. And if we finally put our foot down and demanded to do it in work time as our contracts stated, then we could do it at our desks where we were still expected to answer our phone and email and could be easily interrupted whenever necessary (i.e. continuously). Never got lunchbreaks, so thankfully that minimised the impact on this aspect of my working life.

We actually had contracted hours of training per year. As it turned out, online CPD was a very efficient way of our employer claiming to provide it, without actually doing so and with minimal costs compared to proper day-release courses or intensive training away from the office. When we failed to complete our nominated courses, it was all our fault. Niiiice.

Sounds like normal practice...but you should ALWAYS take lunch breaks ...that is the law !

I do find archaeology quaint in its adherence to employment law. It's about 20 years behind other industries in this respect. Next you'll be telling me that EU Working Time Directive actually has to be observed by an employer. LOL!